Austria to implement digital tax for Apple, other large tech companies

“Austria has vowed to tax tech giants, following France’s new levy on the so-called GAFA companies: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon,” Deutsche Welle reports. “The EU has been trying to implement a bloc-wide policy on the matter.”
“Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Saturday announced plans to impose a tax on large internet and technology companies,” Deutsche Welle reports. “Kutz’s proposal, which comes as the European Union struggles to finalize a new EU-wide levy, will likely come into force in 2020. “‘In addition to an EU-wide move, we’ll also act on a national level. We will introduce a digital tax in Austria,’ Kurz said. ‘The aim is clear — to tax companies that generate huge profits online, but pay hardly any tax on them, such as Facebook or Amazon.’
In addition, Deutsche Welle reports, “France will start taxing Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon — the big US technology companies known as GAFA — from January 1.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The tax collectors’ collective struggle to modernize continues unabated.
When is enough “enough?” Would that the concept of “wiser spending” outweighed the pervasive “more taxation” in the empty heads of government leaders who love collecting and inefficiently wasting other people’s money.
The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites. — Thomas Sowell
SEE ALSO:
France to introduce new ‘GAFA’ (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) tax in new year – December 17, 2018